Walker Buehler is clearly the top prospect in the system and some consider him the top pitching prospect in the game.

Alex Verdugo continues to hold off Keibert Ruiz for the top positional prospect though I believe that is more about Verdugo knocking on the major league door than it is about who will have the more productive major league career.

Yadier Alvarez and Mitchell White will battle for the next best pitching prospect. This is a testament to how pedestrian a season that Alvarez had after being the top pitching prospect headed into 2016 and how much of a jump White made in 2017.

Dennis Santana is now on everyone’s radar and appears to be a consensus top ten prospect who will probably battle Dustin May for the next pitching prospect after Buehler/Alvarez/White. The Dodgers have five legit starting pitchers with four of them having pitched in at least AA. Some still consider Santana a future bullpen piece and if the rotation gets too crowded it is easy to see that scenario unfold. Especially when considering that Urias is not even being mentioned.

Dodgers have a nice group of outfielders but Sickels is on the outside looking in regarding DJ Peters, as Baseball America has him ranked 8th, just behind Diaz and Kendall. John and I disagree on DJ Peters but we agree on Starling Heredia who we both expect to eventually be better than all of them. Baseball America did not put Starling into their top ten.

Dodgers have two catchers in the top ten with Keibert Ruiz and Will Smith but Ruiz is just 19 while Smith is 22 so expect to see Smith long before we see Keibert.

The Dodgers have no infielders in the top ten unless you consider catchers, infielders. This is clearly their weakest spot but it is possible that Lux and Erroll Robinson will be making a move up. Robinson is the under the radar prospect while Lux might be ready to show why he was the 2016 number one pick. Tim Locastro tore up AAA so I’m curious what he does in 2018. Edwin Rios was unable to crack the BA top ten, Sickels also showed him little respect. The best Dodger minor league hitter for two years in a row is just not getting much respect, the scouts may know something.

The Baseball America starting lineup for the future in 2021 is always a silly exercise. I’m not sure how Joc Pederson can be listed as the projected starting center fielder in 2021 when he most likely won’t even be the starting center fielder in 2018.

Things of note among the skills:

Locastro is listed as the fastest player in the Dodger system. I saw this guy play in the 2016 AFL, I would have lost a lot of money if someone had told me that he would be the fastest Dodgers in the organization a year later. Especially when they added Jeren Kendall.

Errol Robinson is listed as the best defensive infielder even though Drew Jackson has the best arm.

As expected Alex Verdugo is listed with the best outfield arm but number one pick Jeren Kendall is listed as the best defensive outfielder.